French Favor Obama in Presidential Race—Which Shows They Have Much to Learn

PARIS -- The people of France have spoken on the subject of the U.S.
presidential election. Naturally, you couldn't care less about what anyone
else (let alone the French) thinks about you or your electoral choices,
right?

The French aren't particularly interested in appearing too keen on
America, either. A Harris Interactive poll found that 66 percent of
respondents either care little about the U.S. presidential race or not at
all. However, should a gun be put to their head mid Gallic shrug, 88
percent of them would take Barack Obama, merci, with 10 percent choosing
Mitt Romney.

When this modern-day underground French Resistance of 10 percent who dared
to admit a preference for Romney (at great risk of being blacklisted from
Parisian soirées) were asked to toss out some reasons why Romney was their
choice, the most frequently occurring words included, in descending order
of frequency: "Obama," "more," "change" and "did." So ironically, Romney
now owns the term "change" -- at least in France. And apparently, he also
has the resounding advantage of not being Obama.

Presumably, these 10 percent also have higher expectations than what they
feel Obama has proven capable of delivering - hence the "more" reference -
and credit Romney with a history of positive actions.

Those who would opt for another Obama term most frequently justified their
choice with words like "president," "social," "did," "good" and "Romney."
So Obama appears to benefit from already having his behind in the chair,
from the fact that he isn't Romney, and for being seen as more
social-welfare oriented. Also, they seem to think he "did" some "good"
things.

But here's the kicker: While 60 percent of French Obama supporters feel
"closer to Obama's values than those of Mitt Romney," only 36 percent
believe that Obama is "competent," and a mere 14 percent believe that
Obama is in the best position to find solutions to the fiscal crisis.
These views can hardly be chalked up to party preference, either, since
only 30 percent of Obama supporters said they preferred Democrats to
Republicans.